Building Management After Earthquakes Hearing

On 3 and 4 September 2012, the Royal Commission conducted a public hearing looking at how New Zealand should manage buildings after earthquakes. This hearing considered how we should do this when we respond immediately after the disaster and also when moving from response into recovery. It looked at the building safety evalution (stickering) operations after the Canterbury earthquakes and what New Zealand can do to improve the system in the future.

The hearing provided the opportunity for debate about what the goals and objectives of building management after earthquakes should be. This was part of a wider discussion about who is responsible for the building safety evaluation process, both for developing it and in practice after a disaster. The hearing discussed how to manage buildings, given the need to prioritise how this should happen when numbers of buildings are damaged. It will also looked at who should carry out evaluations, what methods these evaluators should use, and how to ensure that these evaluators have the right skill sets while balancing the need to plan for a situation that occurs infrequently.

Participants included academics, senior practising engineers and professional engineering societies.